DIY Harm Reduction

Disclaimer: Sometimes the best harm reduction is reaching out for help from local orgs and getting in with a professional. That's okay and very cool. This post is to highlight the type of harm reduction one can do for non-life-threatening habits and addictions. This is not a replacement for standard drug-treatment, instead it is a stepping stone for people who might not yet be ready.

Shame and secrecy around drug use are tools of oppression. This guide/testimonial aims to provide a DIY approach to harm reduction. Instead of prioritizing "getting clean" or maintaining some level of perceived "purity," this journal prioritizes self-reflection and personal agency. Guilt and conformity have no place in determining what you do and do not do with your body. Instead, I ask you to tear down the little oppressor within yourself. You are not less of a person because you take substances. 

 I've recently challenged myself to use fewer nicotine pouches (Zyn, on!, Rogue, Velo) . The goal was to get down to zero for a while (6 months or longer) and then use them recreationally. You might be thinking to yourself right now, "but Secrets, why not quit all-together?" To which I'll tell you this- it's okay to decide what role a chemical has in your life. It's your body and if you want to introduce a drug into it, that's your business. Harm reduction is all about minimizing the harms of your usage, reducing shame, and acknowledging the whole (sometimes unspoken) truth of your chemical/drug/substance use. 

If you plan to use this post as a guide, write down your answers to the questions posed in a notebook using the same headers I use below. These principles apply to any drug or bad habit you might be having, so feel free to try it out on something benign like reducing processed meat and spend less time on your phone. These principals typically work best on reducing something you are doing, rather than increasing something you want to do. You'll likely add positive habits later on the harm-reduction process, but those aren't so much the goal. They're more of a side-effect.

Step 1: Acknowledge what benefits you're getting from the drug/substance.

 This is the secret sauce of most harm reduction programs. If the goal is to quit/reduce, why start by gushing over what you like about it? The point is to show you that the benefits are usually not very strong. Your mind gets rolling and you think, "well, shit. There's plenty of things in my life that can make me feel good in a similar way." or "I'm pretty sure the benefit there for me is just avoiding a side effect of coming off the substance." This has the added perk of taking away the shame of using the substance. You're not a stupid little fuck who can't control themselves or betraying your friends and family because you have no spine. You're someone who uses this substance to cope with your very real problems and/or someone who is receiving a benefit from the substance.

Admittedly, I love taking nicotine pouches. So for me the first step of the process was uncovering why I like nicotine. I'll keep those to myself. I don't want anyone reading this to think that the benefits outweigh the cons. Instead, I'll talk about why these are a great step down from chew and smoking. Nicotine pouches have been poorly studied but they contain fewer carcinogens than their natural tobacco counterparts. Instead, they contain nicotine salts, flavorings, and plant fibers. This means they are almost certainly safer in the long run than tobacco products. It's important to note that we don't have long term health data about these products.

Step 2: What don't I like about the substance?

Here's where we take what we learned from our first line of questioning and turn it on its head. Now that we know the benefits, it's time to have an honest look at the drawbacks of taking the substance. What is the substance doing to you? How does it effect your mind? What about your body? How does it shape your relationships? No need to do extra research, unless you're into that sort of thing. Just list out what you don't like. For example, I wanted to get off nic-pouches because they're too convenient. I hated how I would hide them all over the place and then instinctively use them whenever I found them. I would get nervous about if I would have enough when I went out. I used to hide it from my partner too. Sure, there were signs, but I was committed to making sure she wasn't worried about it. That's nasty business, having to hide things from your partner.

Worst of all, these pouches are made by the same corpos who profited off harming people in my community before. Is the product safer now? Sure. Is it as addictive as ever? You betcha! Maybe even more so now that they're basically guilt free. I hate those corpo sleaze balls. Knowing what you don't like about the substance is a good motivator, especially since I dislike the people who make the product I'd like to quit.

Step 3: What's the smallest step I could take without working too hard?

Alright, now that you're well aware of what's keeping you on your habit and you're aware of what you dislike about it, let's take the next step. This is where things get interesting. You might have gone through all that and thought to yourself, actually you know what- I'm good to keep going on my habit/substance. That's totally fine. No judgement here. Here in harm reduction-ville we don't do that. Instead, we're going to look at the risky parts of your habit/use and address that instead. Most people think of things like needle exchanges, free Naloxone, fentanyl test strips for party drugs, and monitored injection sites as harm-reduction interventions. They're right to think so. But just because those are the most controversial harm reduction interventions, doesn't mean they are the only interventions.

Hypothetical Smallest Steps:

Maybe you're a recreational MDMA user and you just read all that and realized, I like my relationship with MDMA. But when I was listing out things I didn't like I remembered that sometimes people die because their dose wasn't clean. The next smallest step in this case might be going to a local harm-reduction org and snagging some test strips. It might mean making a plan in case you or someone in your friend group uses laced-drugs.

It certainly wouldn't be a stretch that one of you reading this is a recreational marijuana smoker who recently realized that they have a dependence on the substance. Every year, the strains get more potent and as more states legalize you can finally be advertised to. I have a friend who couldn't leave his house without his blinker and would get anxious if he did- kinda like me and my pouches. When he decided to cut back, he divided up his waking hours into quarters and chose not to smoke during the afternoon quarter anymore. When he was able to do that without trouble, he cut out before bed as well. When he told me he was having trouble cutting out mornings, I told him he could try a different small step. That's when he decided to change the amount he smoked in the morning. That's where he's at now. He's cut his smoking by more than half and has experienced all kinds of benefits as a result.

Rinse and Repeat

Whether we like it or not, we are in a relationship with the substances we use. Sometimes those relationships are good, like with me and my Adderall prescription. I take it as-needed and I've never had issues with side-effects or increasing tolerance. I take breaks when I don't need to be on it. However, some relationships are bad, like with my nic-pouches. They changed the way I moved through the world for the worse. I was getting marginal benefits at an unacceptable cost. Worse yet, that money was going into the pockets of people I hate. DIY harm reduction is punk. It's a means to fight against forces that aren't welcome in your life. There's a natural reward to participating in this fight. It demonstrates that you can actually turn the tables on forces you thought were unavoidable.

Setbacks are part of the process

 When I set out to lower my nicotine use, I thought I was going to give in and return to previous levels of use way more often that I did. I had done so in the past when I was trying to cut back. But this time felt different. If I had to choose one thing that made this time different from the last time, it was radically accepting setbacks. By that I mean acknowledging that setbacks are part of the process. Last time I tried, I would experience setbacks that led to me spiraling back into using pouches again. Which is crazy behavior. Recently, when I stepped down from 4 a day to 3 a day, I slipped up one Friday. I was sitting in my car at the end of the day and I fumbled across a container of Zyn. Before I even knew what I was doing I had stuck one in my gums. This would have sent me spiraling into all kinds of negative thoughts last time. But this time I said to myself,  that's interesting- I guess I shouldn't keep a container in here. I acknowledged that over the last week I had already taken 6 fewer pouches than I usually had. I had been making progress and this setback doesn't take that progress away.

Progress as of now

It's been a little over a month since I decided to DIY my harm reduction plan. Yesterday was my first day without nicotine and today has been my second. My most recent little step was asking my partner to be the "pouch holder". So now if I want to get one, I need to ask her. She's allowed to ask me to wait up to an hour before she'll get me one. I feel like this will probably be my last time taking nicotine until I hit my goal of six months.

I hope this guide/testimonial has been useful for you. If you feel inspired to try your hand at reshaping your own relationships to substances, let me know how it goes. If you want any advice, my DMs are always open to that sort of thing.